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Soojung was on her way to her first day of class at university. She was buzzing with excitement about her newfound independence; she couldn’t wait to begin a new chapter in her life. She walked with light steps on the sidewalk with her new, unused notebooks tucked under her arm she couldn’t wait to write in. Plus, the weather was beautiful. It felt like it was too good to be true.

She looked at her surroundings, taking note of each building she walked past; after all, her university was huge, and she was only a first year student. Soojung was a bit surprised that she didn’t get lost already.

As if on cue, she accidentally bumps into someone on the sidewalk. Her eyes widen, and her head already starts to come up with a billion ways to create an apology. She turns her head toward the person she bumped into as she starts to make her apology.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking –” She gasps in fear, dropping her notebooks on the sidewalk from the shock.

It was the man!

Soojung stood there, frozen in absolute terror. This couldn’t be happening. She looked around and tried to scream for help, but there was no one around. It was just the two of them.

She tried to run, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of the man; she couldn’t look away. In fact, she couldn’t move at all. She was stuck; it was as if she was being controlled like a puppet. She couldn’t have even taken a step back if she wanted to.

“Please….” She falters, a lone tear shedding down her face. “Please don’t hurt me.”

She winces as she watches the man take a step closer, their bodies almost touching now.

“You thought you could kill me?” He smiles sinisterly, almost too wide to be human-like. She tries to close her eyes, but she was stuck.

“You’re a mere mortal; a human. You have no power over me.” The man grumbles, walking around Soojung. He’s now directly behind her, and everything in her being is telling her to run.

Even with all her might, she couldn’t budge from her spot. She didn’t know if it was from the sheer terror or if he was actually controlling her.

“It’s time for you to say goodbye to your time on Earth.” He growls, and his tone of voice unsettled her, and she wanted to puke. She was shaking in fear.

The man yanks her hair with a strong, death-like grip. She cries out in pain; her feet are no longer touching the floor. She finally has control of her body again, and she begins to thrash about. It’s difficult though, when he was holding her up in the air by just holding her hair. She was powerless.

She screams when he stabs her in the gut from behind.

 

She feels a strong grip on her shoulder, shaking her firmly but gently.

Soojung’s eyes shoot open, sitting up from the bed quickly. She feels a cold sweat surrounding her body, involuntarily panting from the lack of breath.

“Shhh. Hey, it’s okay. You’re fine. You’re okay.” She hears a soft, deep voice from in front of her. Her eyes readjust quickly, and she sees an unfamiliar face staring at her, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. She notices that it’s dark in the room as she frantically looks around, only a candle illuminating the two from the bedside table next to them.

She’s shaking, still breathless when he speaks again.

“You were having a nightmare.” He states, trying to comfort her.

A nightmare.

She can still feel her pulse racing, especially her abdomen.

As if on cue, she begins to feel the shooting pain again, she gasps out, almost choking from the sudden intake of air.

The boy in front of her widens his eyes, unsure of what to do. “Listen, you need to lay down. I need to check your wounds.” He says urgently.

She didn’t know whether to trust him or not, but she fell back down onto the bed, clutching her abdomen.

She watches him as he opens the bedside drawer, grabbing anything he could find. She sees a couple packages of gauze, a large, cylindrical pill bottle, and some antiseptic ointment.

“I won’t lie, but this will hurt a lot.” He says grimly, and he gestures toward to where her hand was placed. “I need you to lift your shirt.

Soojung feels shy all of a sudden, but she does what he says, lifting the shirt up to show the bandaged area.

The two of them are startled when she sees the gauze almost soaked in blood. The boy wastes no time in removing the gauze from her body, wincing when he hears Soojung whimper in pain.

“Sorry.” He mutters. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”

She watches as he applies the antiseptic around the wound, and she notices the small sutures holding her skin together. She doesn’t remember getting stitches; actually, she doesn’t remember even arriving there.

He carefully places the new gauze on her abdomen, finishing up by discarding the bloodied one in a nearby trash bin. The boy then walks back, gently sitting on the bed as he reaches over and grabs some wipes. She could smell the pungent odor of rubbing alcohol as she watches him wipe his hands; covered in her blood.

“I’m sorry.” She says weakly, gesturing to his hands. “My blood getting on you.”

He looks up, a small smile evident on his face. “It’s alright. I rather have this than you going into shock from infection. You’re quite lucky; it’s only a flesh wound. None of your organs were harmed.”

She nods slowly in understanding when he speaks again. “After all, you got way more blood on me yesterday.”

She recalls Seungcheol’s words from earlier, and how he mentioned something about a… Wonwoo? And how she should apologize to himself.

“You’re Wonwoo.” She says, as if unsure. “Seungcheol told me I was almost bleeding out on you.”

He nods, finishing up with wiping his hands. He tosses it in the trash before turning back to you. “Yeah, that’s me. It was pretty frightening. We thought we were going to lose you out there.”

“Sorry for getting my blood on you.” She apologizes again, not sure what to say.

He chuckles, and Soojung feels a bit calmer. “That’s alright. It’s no big deal. And if it makes you feel any better, it seems like you’ll heal in no time.”

Soojung was grateful for the ‘good’ news, but she was growing more discomfort by the minute from the pain. Wonwoo was quick to catch it, and grabbed the pill bottle from the table. “Here, take these.” He says, placing two small pills in her hand. “That’ll try and stop you from feeling the pain.”

She doesn’t hesitate to swallow the two pills, gulping in discomfort from the lack of water. “You couldn’t have given these to me beforehand?” She sighs, wiping off some of the sweat from her forehead.

“Sorry, I was a bit preoccupied.” He says, gesturing to her wound. She could hear the hint of teasing in his voice, and it put Soojung a bit at ease.

She sighs again in exhaustion, but she was afraid to go back to sleep. She stares down at her hands, fiddling with her own fingers, not knowing what to say next. After all, she was talking to a stranger. Granted, it was a stranger who saved her life, but she wasn’t exactly comfortable with the lingering silence.

“If you don’t mind,” he starts, and Soojung looks up from her hands. “Could you tell me what your nightmare was about?”

The thought of the man was enough to make her heart stop momentarily. He notices her frozen state, and almost regrets asking her before she began to speak again.

“It was… the man who shot me. He was there, trying to kill me.” She says, each word getting softer and softer. She shudders at the thought, recalling each and every detail in her dream, playing each scene in her head over and over again; almost like it was a broken record, and she couldn’t stop it.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that.” He says apologetically. “But, you did kill him. So you’re safe from here now.”

Soojung was frustrated, though. Was she really safe? She had questions, and a lot of them. That man probably wasn’t the only one out to get her. There are others, she concluded. There was something definitely wrong that was going on.

“I know you have a lot of questions. We can answer them in the morning. Right now, it’s the middle of the night.” He reassures, placing a hand on her knee in order to comfort her.

She sighs loudly, defeated. “I don’t think I can go back to sleep after that.” She mutters. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was the look of the man’s face, right before he tried to kill her.

“That’s understandable.” He says. He seemed to hesitate, before speaking again. “This might be weird, but if you want, I can stay here with you –”

“Yes.” She says quickly. “Please.” She didn’t want to seem desperate, but heck, she definitely was.

He stares at her for a bit, before nodding quickly. “Okay.” He gets up, and grabs a nearby chair, sitting down next to her.

“Well, since I’m gonna be here all night, I guess I can answer some of your questions in the meantime.” He says, settling into the chair, leaning back comfortably.

Soojung doesn’t know where to start. After all, she hadn’t had any human contact in the past few weeks. She was lost. All she wanted was to find her family.

“I don’t think you know what is happening right now. And you probably won’t believe me, actually.” He sighs, and he gives her a look of pity. Judging from his facial expression, she doesn’t think she’s ready for what is about to come.

“But right now, we’re being invaded by aliens.”

 

 

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(a/n): ooooh aliens